Improvised disinfectant?

[Iosyn]

Pretty sure you can also use Urine to disinfect a wound.
#nobodyfunctions

But seriously it’s a good idea. Especially since cauterizing in cata has a chance of failure.

[G.E.C]

[quote=“i2amroy, post:7, topic:10215”]As I (and several others) have noted recently, hydrogen peroxide is literally one of the worst things you can pour on a wound large than a small scratch. It worsens the chance of infection by at least a couple factors of magnitude, reduces heal time correspondingly, can cause enough pain to literally cause you to go into shock and die… there’s a reason why they don’t use it in medicine anymore. The fact that people still think its a good thing to use is just a remnant of the days when we went “oooh, it fizzes when mixed with blood and (somewhat) sanitizes flat surfaces, it must be a good disinfectant!”, combined with the force of a “home remedy” that we teach to our kids.

Don’t pour it on wounds larger than a scratch. Seriously, it’s bad for you. And it doesn’t even disinfect surfaces that well either, missing several key types of bacteria that can be very dangerous. (On the other hand it makes a great cleaner for bloodstains!)[/quote]

Well crap, I have been using it to clean a rather large scratch on my hand… Am I going to die?

[Coolthulhu]

Am I going to die?

We’re all going to die.

[Random_dragon]

Unless you’re a highlander or some such thing, I would assume so. o3o

[Valpo]

I supose you would have noticed whether you had a bloodinfection shortly after treating your wound.

[Litppunk]

learn something new every day. anyhow +1 to this whole idea. Though cauterizing is slightly OP in my opinion, yea pain can get a bit annoying but usually not TOO bad, and fades farely quickly. And somehow you can use a single match to heat up a knife enough to cauterize it… or use one unit of butane lighter. I am all for nerfing cauterizing a little, (no more matchbook heated knife being a thing) and adding some improvised disinfectant that can be crafted fairly easily.

[scorpion451]

There’s always iodine tincture- its just iodine and alcohol at about 3x the concentration used for water purification.
A lot of hard-core survival kits actually explain how to mix this stuff up using the water purifier drops or tablets in the kit, and its basically the bootleg form of the most common surgical antiseptic, betadine. That stuff adds a stabilizer to reduce toxicity, but the old school form of it works just fine for first aid on anything not requiring reattachment of limbs or open chest surgery.

Also, on the peroxide thing: The problem isn’t that it isn’t a great antiseptic. The problem is that it is TOO good at being an antiseptic. HO-OH kills EVERYTHING it touches at concentrations above a few percent. The stuff you get at a store doesn’t kill bacteria reliably because its only 3% solution- that concentration can actually speed healing, so long as you don’t keep reapplying it, and is a great cleaning agent to use before applying a long-term antiseptic. ~6% solutions still get used medically as a “nuclear option” for wound care, especially in field medicine for gangrene where you want to chemically cauterize the wound at the same time that you flush it out, and concerns about shock are a moot point. 10-30% solutions are one of the standard ways of cleaning surgical tools, because it dismantles most organic molecules at those concentrations. They use concentrated peroxide vapor to decontaminate quarantine zones. Its a phenomenal antiseptic. The problem is that people are made of the same stuff as bacteria. X3

[Pthalocy]

Don’t pour it on wounds larger than a scratch. Seriously, it’s bad for you. And it doesn’t even disinfect surfaces that well either, missing several key types of bacteria that can be very dangerous. (On the other hand it makes a great cleaner for bloodstains!)

Yeah we use it as a stain remover - my whole damn family is prone to nosebleeds during winter months. Too dry here. I also keep a spare bottle as part of an emergency oxygen producer for my aquariums should filters give out during a power outage. I don’t think we ever use it as a disinfectant.

[Litppunk]

XD HA.

[Pthalocy]

Is there a way to make makeshift disinfectant have a low chance of failure? That would simulate it’s makeshiftyness pretty well, I think. You could just apply more of the stuff and hope it cleans the wound better, but taking such an action would consume resources and crafting/applying time, rather than be as painful and unrealistic as multiple cautery attempts.

[Bumpkin]

Shouldn’t cauterising realistically increase the chance of infection, not lessen it? You’re basically creating a burn wound instead of a cut wound, and burns are notorious for getting infected.

[Coolthulhu]

Is there a way to make makeshift disinfectant have a low chance of failure? That would simulate it’s makeshiftyness pretty well, I think. You could just apply more of the stuff and hope it cleans the wound better, but taking such an action would consume resources and crafting/applying time, rather than be as painful and unrealistic as multiple cautery attempts.

Yes.
Moving the entire “apply medical stuff” function to a iuse_actor would make adding this sort of crap more natural. I may try doing it.

[Pthalocy]

Shouldn’t cauterising realistically increase the chance of infection, not lessen it? You’re basically creating a burn wound instead of a cut wound, and burns are notorious for getting infected.

You are correct. I’ve forgotten where this discussion happened last. I think the consensus was cautery made more sense to lessen bleeding.

[Zireael]

[quote=“Pthalocy, post:24, topic:10215”]Is there a way to make makeshift disinfectant have a low chance of failure? That would simulate it’s makeshiftyness pretty well, I think. You could just apply more of the stuff and hope it cleans the wound better, but taking such an action would consume resources and crafting/applying time, rather than be as painful and unrealistic as multiple cautery attempts.

Yes.
Moving the entire “apply medical stuff” function to a iuse_actor would make adding this sort of crap more natural. I may try doing it.[/quote]

That would be great!

[kevin.granade]

Going back to the original question, I’d be happy to include improvised disinfectants as long as they come with a credible source outlining how well they work. “some guy (or a movie) said this is better than nothing” isn’t evidence that it is in fact better than nothing, in many cases that kind of remedy is actively harmful, but not bad enough to overcome people’s various observation biases. “this one time I used it and it healed immediately” “that other guy died after trying it, but he had it coming to him so it doesn’t matter”

[Bumpkin]

Going back to the original question, I’d be happy to include improvised disinfectants as long as they come with a credible source outlining how well they work. “some guy (or a movie) said this is better than nothing” isn’t evidence that it is in fact better than nothing, in many cases that kind of remedy is actively harmful, but not bad enough to overcome people’s various observation biases. “this one time I used it and it healed immediately” “that other guy died after trying it, but he had it coming to him so it doesn’t matter”

What is the generic ‘disinfectant’ intended to be, as a basis of comparison? Tincture of iodine?

[Random_dragon]

That’s what I’ve asked before. Is it tincture of iodine, isopropyl, or some other formula? :V

[Noctifer]

If this has been added then disregard but how about the use of honey and salt as topical antiseptics in the game. Salt would hurt like hell but lower chance of infection while honey would not hurt but have less of a Chance to be successful.

[Malkeus]

Ever seen gladiator? Maggots are great for treating septic wounds, they eat only dead flesh, leaving the healthy flesh better able to heal. The medical community uses specially bred maggots to treat long-term wounds, such as the holes diabetics can get in their feet and bedsores that have become infected.

[Noctifer]

The maggot treatment while effective can get out of hand in untrained hands so it should required high first-aid skill. It would not halt a already spread infection, only appropriate oral or inject medicine could.